Tom Clancy’s Debut Novel Turns 40

It was 1984. The Cold War was at its peak. Ronald Reagan campaigned for four more years in the White House, winning a landslide race over Former VP Walter Mondale that November.

For book lovers, October 1st, 1984, would be a day that will propel one Catholic author to best-selling status. His name is Tom Clancy. Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October would be on the bookshelves of stores everywhere. And the rest was history.  Thanks in part to an endorsement from President Reagan, Clancy would become a household name for years to come for nearly three decades.

The geopolitical thriller follows a CIA analyst named Dr. Jack Ryan who chases a nuclear class submarine called “Red October” under the command of Captain Marko Ramuis that plans total annihilation by launching its nukes on the United States. Ramuis intends to defect from the Soviet Union and head to the United States. Ryan has three days to prove it. It would lead to a confrontation with Ramuis’s former student, Captain Tupolev. In the end, Ryan is successful in helping Ramuis and the crew defect to the United States.

The book would be turned into a film starring Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery six years after the novel was released.

The book gives us some lessons of faith.

Common Good

It does contain some tense scenes. Yet, the underlying message Clancy gets across is that we strive for peace when we look for non-violent approaches. There will be times that we have to seek the common good with those who don't agree with us.

Trust

Ramuis hand-picked his crew to ensure that he is successful in defecting from the Soviet Navy. Even his background offered reasons as to why he didn’t trust the USSR. Like Ramuis, we need to discern who can be trusted in our lives as to who can help us get to heaven and who can’t.

Ramuis murders Captain Ivan Putin as he sees him as a threat to his defection.

Ryan was willing to work with Ramuis to ensure that he safely helped him and his crew defect from the Soviets.

Betrayal

Ramuis was being pursued by someone that he once mentored, and he had someone within his ranks looking to halt his defection.

Captain Tupolev was once under the guidance of Ramuis. He would be authoritative in pursuit of capturing Ramuis and the Red October.

Disguised as a cook while working for GRU, a military intelligence arm for the Soviets, he takes part in stopping Ramuis from succeeding in his defection. He would sabotage a missile in one of the silos. He would kill Kamarov, Ramuis’s second-in-command, while injuring Ramuis and Williams, a British sailor.

Jesus was betrayed by someone close to him. There will be times when someone will do the same to us. It is important to know who can be trusted and who can’t.

The book is a page-turning thriller. It does have some strong language. It has stood the test of time and is a must read.

The best part is both Ramuis and Ryan are Catholic.